The joy that is Slingshot Fibre

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dumptydo

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#196454 31-May-2016 21:22

Hi all!
My first post as a Slingshot fibre user.
Just got the 100/20 Mbps fibre connection. Was getting 100-106Mbps downloads last week direct from router and 86+Mbps over wifi.
This week after Slingshot did what they referred to as "a change over" Im getting anything between 6-20Mbps download over wifi. Ethernet is still 86-100Mbps.
Slingshot after 6 hours of waiting and farting around only contribution is to send me another modem as the CSR "doesn't really know whats wrong mate."

Questions for all you illustrious and wise Geekzone peeps is ...
1. Has anyone else experienced this huge drop in wifi and if so how did they fix it?
2. Should I replace the NF4V modem Slingshot provided (which I noticed has dropped 3 metres of signal around the house compared to my old Belkin) and with what?

Any advice is greatly appreciated and one day hopefully I'll be able to return the favour!
Below is a pic of a linetest I did.

freitasm

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#1563319 31-May-2016 21:24

Speedtests over WiFi are inconsistent and shouldn't be considered for anything really, unless you live in an environment completely free of interferences.

If you have a smartphone you can look for apps (such as InSSIDer) and see if there are other WiFi networks in your area causing interference. But it will always be a seesaw - sometimes more down than up.

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allio

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#1563324 31-May-2016 21:33

First of all, speeds over wireless have nothing to do with your ISP. They depend on your equipment (both router and client), the wireless settings you're using, and the environment (physical layout of your house, interference from other networks).

The NF4V is a single band N300 router, which means it's not a speed demon when it comes to wireless. You'll never consistently get 100mbps speeds with an N300 router even under perfect conditions, and it just takes one or two neighbours to ensure that you never have perfect conditions. In my experience 40-80mbps is the best you can realistically expect using N300. You're obviously getting quite a bit less than that, which doesn't surprise me based on others' experiences with the NF4V.

If wifi speeds are important to you I would replace the router with something a bit more capable. For high speeds, you need to be using 5Ghz. This means either dual-band wireless N, or more preferably wireless AC. Any of the TP-Link Archer series (including the $100 Archer C2) will give you 100mbps speeds over wireless.

Bear in mind that your client equipment will need to support this standard as well.

richms

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#1563332 31-May-2016 21:47

Chances are it or the computer has reverted to a 20MHz channel because of another network present. The other thing that may have happened is it is on auto channel and it has chosen a channel with fewer other wifi networks on it but some other form of interference like a video sender or wireless audio or similar.

It is operating as intended.

AC wireless will give you great speeds when you are in the same room as the router or perhaps one wall inbetween, Not had a play with that TP link in particular but their other products all perform very well for the price so have no reason to expect that it wouldnt.

Richard rich.ms

darylblake

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#1563362 31-May-2016 23:21

You cannot expect wifi to work optimally at that speed.

If you are getting full speed on ethernet, then the only thing you can do to get better wifi speeds is to buy better gear or re-locate it to another area to obtain better coverage. So in this case it is not an issue with slingshot at all.

hio77

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#1563390 31-May-2016 23:44

dumptydo:
Slingshot after 6 hours of waiting and farting around only contribution is to send me another modem as the CSR "doesn't really know whats wrong mate."

Disappointing that the skill level of a csr is that, which they aren't even trained to understand the effects of wireless.

One would expect, considering the amount of false-positive support faults that would come over from slow wifi it would be a prime thing to actually be tight on...

In terms of your actual question, I dont really have anything more to add than whats already been said.

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michaelmurfy

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#1563391 31-May-2016 23:51

Sorry literally can't even @ Slingshot.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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Nebbie

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#1563659 1-Jun-2016 14:10

In regards to network interference from other networks if you have an android you can download a Free App called "Wifi Analyzer" it looks like this.

NOTE: your wifi test shows 301ms of jitter but latency is still 3ms on average, I believe your channel is rather swamped with interference from other networks around you.

As you can see channel 1 is rather full and some of the other channels don't have as manny networks using the same channel, you could use this to find a spare (if your lucky) channel.
For people like me living in an apartment complex with building wifi my 2.4ghz spectrum is pretty full and I'm unable to get more than 8mbit on a good day.

The 5ghz spectrum a little better but as everyone is going wifi these days even 5ghz is getting a little full, 1 year ago this was not the case I was almost the only one.

Hope that helps.

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Nebukadnessar

allio

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#1563691 1-Jun-2016 14:38

Nebbie:

In regards to network interference from other networks if you have an android you can download a Free App called "Wifi Analyzer" it looks like this.

That is nightmarish!

I'm surprised that your 5Ghz spectrum is full as well. It tends to be dramatically less congested for several reasons: firstly, because fewer people are using it (though as you say, this is slowly beginning to change as more ISPs hand out 5G-capable routers), and secondly, because the higher frequency signals don't transmit as far or as well through obstacles. Additionally, even if you can see other networks, they have less impact on yours because there are more non-overlapping channels available for use.

From my lounge I can see about 20 2.4Ghz networks, some of which are powerful enough to have a large impact on my speeds if I'm on the same channel, but can just barely see 1-2 5Ghz networks, which are tiny blips compared to my own router.